Former Fugitive Sentenced on Conspiracy to Defraud the IRS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 19, 2013

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and José A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID), Miami Field Office, announce today’s sentencing of defendant Domingos Trofino, 64, on charges of conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Trofino was sentenced to 14 months in prison, which he has already served. Trofino was charged in a superseding indictment filed on October 13, 2000. He was extradited from Italy on August 10, 2012, and was detained pending trial since that time.

According to documents filed in court, during 1989, Trofino formed Compubras Export and Import Corporation (Compubras) in Miami, Florida. Compubras manufactured and sold electronics and computer hardware to customers in South Florida, Paraguay and Uruguay. As part of its business operations, Compubras maintained a dual set of records. One set of records accurately reflected its business activities. The second set of records was created to understate its actual income in an attempt to support a multi-year scheme to evade the payment of federal income taxes. The false set of records included false invoices that understated the true amount of Compubras’ sales and allowed the defendant and Compubras’ other shareholders to skim cash sales proceeds from Compubras without reporting the funds as income.

According to documents filed with the court, the IRS conducted an audit of Compubras, during which it received only with the false set of corporate records. After the IRS determined that it had been provided with fraudulent business records, a search warrant was obtained for the downtown Miami offices of Compubras and the personal residences of the defendant and other Compubras shareholders. Evidence seized during the execution of these search warrants confirmed the fraudulent nature of the previously produced business records.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CID. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Cronin.